Lead Software Engineer

JOIN THE BEST TEAM IN SPORT & SPIRIT At Varsity Brands , we believe every student deserves the opportunity to succeed and every educator wants to make a difference.

It takes a team to make a real impact, and through our two divisions – BSN SPORTS and Varsity Spirit – and our network of 6,000+ employees and independent representatives, we are proud to partner with a wide range of educational institutions and club and professional sports to transform the student journey in SPORT and SPIRIT.

LOCATION: Remote HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT: Varsity Brands is building a modern, unified digital platform that powers the full experience of sport and spirit, connecting product configuration, ordering, fulfillment, manufacturing readiness, customer engagement, and business operations through scalable, API-driven services and shared platform capabilities.

The Lead Software Engineer serves as a senior technical leader responsible for designing and delivering complex platform capabilities that span multiple engineering teams, applications, and services.

This role provides technical leadership beyond an individual team, influencing architecture decisions, engineering standards, platform strategy, and software delivery practices across the organization.

The Lead Software Engineer combines deep technical expertise with systems thinking, helping engineering teams solve complex technical challenges while ensuring solutions align with Varsity Brands ’ long-term platform vision.

This role serves as a trusted advisor to engineering leadership and plays a critical role in developing engineering talent, driving modernization efforts, and accelerating platform transformation.

The Lead Software Engineer helps scale Varsity Brands ’ technology capabilities by creating reusable solutions, improving platform consistency, and strengthening engineering execution across teams. This role contributes to:

Improved scalability, reliability, and performance of platform services

Greater reuse of shared services and architectural patterns

Accelerated modernization of legacy applications and technology platforms

Improved engineering productivity and delivery effectiveness

Increased technical capability through mentorship and coaching

Reduced technical debt and operational complexity

Stronger alignment between engineering decisions and business objectives

WHAT YOU WILL DO: Technical Leadership & Architecture

Lead architecture and design efforts for complex applications, services, and platform capabilities

Drive technical decision-making across multiple teams and technology domains

Establish scalable, maintainable, and secure architecture patterns

Promote consistency in engineering approaches, frameworks, and development standards

Review and influence major technical designs and implementation strategies

Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture principles and platform strategy

Platform Engineering & Modernization

Lead development of reusable platform services and shared engineering capabilities

Drive modernization initiatives supporting cloud-native, API-first, and event-driven architectures

Identify opportunities to simplify systems, eliminate duplication, and improve maintainability

Guide technical debt reduction efforts and platform optimization initiatives

Promote engineering practices that improve reliability, scalability, and operational performance

Engineering Excellence

Establish and promote engineering best practices across development teams

Drive adoption of automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and DevOps practices

Improve software quality through design reviews, code reviews, and technical coaching

Champion performance, security, resiliency, and operational excellence standards

Support continuous improvement of engineering processes and delivery methods

Technical Mentorship & Talent Development

Mentor Software Engineers I, II, and III while helping prepare future Lead Engineers

Provide technical coaching and career guidance to engineers across the organization

Share knowledge through architecture reviews, design discussions, and technical forums

Help establish a culture of learning, collaboration, and engineering excellence

Serve as a role model for technical leadership without formal authority

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Partner with Product Management, Design, Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, and Engineering teams

Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions

Evaluate tradeoffs involving performance, reliability, security, cost, and maintainability

Influence technology roadmaps and engineering priorities

Drive alignment among stakeholders with varying technical and business objectives

Key Performance Indicators Success in this role will be measured through:

Scalability, reliability, and performance of platform services

Adoption of architectural standards and reusable engineering patterns

Reduction in technical debt and operational complexity

Engineering productivity improvements

Effectiveness of technical mentorship and talent development

Contribution to modernization and platform transformation initiatives

Influence on engineering quality and technical decision-making

QUALIFICATIONS: The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following capabilities: Platform Leadership

Thinks beyond individual applications to platforms, systems, and reusable capabilities

Designs solutions that scale across products, teams, and business functions

Balances immediate delivery needs with long-term architectural objectives

Technical Expertise

Deep understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, cloud-native development, APIs, and modern engineering practices

Strong knowledge of performance optimization, resiliency, security, and system design

Ability to evaluate and implement scalable engineering solutions

Strategic Problem Solving

Solves highly complex technical challenges involving multiple systems and stakeholders

Applies systems thinking to identify root causes and long-term solutions

Anticipates technical risks and proactively mitigates issues

Influence & Collaboration

Influences technical decisions without formal authority

Builds alignment among engineering teams and business stakeholders

Communicates complex technical concepts in clear and accessible language

Technical Mentorship

Develops engineering talent through coaching, mentorship, and technical leadership

Promotes continuous learning and engineering excellence

Helps elevate technical capability across the organization

Education, Certification and Experience Required

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical discipline; or equivalent combination of education and experience

8–12+ years of progressive software engineering experience

Demonstrated experience leading architecture and technical design across multiple systems or teams

Experience building scalable applications, APIs, distributed systems, and cloud-native solutions

Experience mentoring engineers and influencing engineering standards

Preferred

Experience supporting platform modernization initiatives

Experience with AWS and modern cloud technologies

Experience leading large-scale engineering initiatives across multiple teams